CAPE TOWN - Some Lavender Hill parents have petitioned the Department of Social Development to prosecute parents whose children are left unattended over the New Year's long weekend.

Last year, around 500 children went missing over the festive season across Cape Town.

All of them were eventually re-united with their parents or guardians.

The Lavender Community Policing Forum's (CPF) Lucinda Evans, says they feel action has to be taken against negligent parents.

"As the CPF, working together with the Department of Social Development, we have taken a [stance of] zero tolerance on the negligence of parents. We have asked the department to charge these parents with negligence, especially those that forget their children on Muizenberg beach."